Friends

A small pullback in oil prices and strength in chip stocks helped the market averages find their footing with Nasdaq leading the way, despite the war heating back up with Iran. Investors have been dealing with the uncertainty of war for months now, so recent developments are really nothing new. But the direction of oil prices does seem to be a determining factor with regards to market direction at this moment.

As for today, by the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 139 points to finish the day at 52,487. The S&P 500 was up 60 points to close at 7,543. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 336 points to close at 26,206. Gold was up $47 to trade at $4,130 per ounce, while oil was down $1.70 to trade at $71.82 per barrel WTI.

Stocks have been able to survive some difficult headlines so far this week. Earnings season has just begun with a suspect report from Pepsi this morning and we’ll get a look at Delta Airlines tomorrow. Let’s see how the week finishes out before we get heavy into earnings season over the coming weeks.

Have a nice evening everyone.

Jim